The prices of FPV goggles are insane. Why do we have to pay more than $250, for two tiny screens in a piece of plastic? I have no idea. There are some cheap goggles out there, for around $120, but they are using low resolution screens. So for a decent solution, you need to spend quite an amount of money.
I love to build things myself and thought I should be able to build something myself for $50. Not necessarily better than the 100 bucks Goggles, but at least on par with them. My inspirations I got from the web, like e.g. in this thread http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?12272-DIY-Goggles-and-Head-mountable-displays…….ideas-and-projects
First I started to build something I can strap on my head, but that turned out to be very uncomfortable. So I changed it into a kind of helmet solution, but lets start with what you need:
* Small TFT screen 4.3″ for $30. Its low res (432×272) but I hope that the higher X res will improve OSD result.
* Some black tape $2
* Sheet 5mm Depron $5
* Some Depron Glue about $1
* Fresnel Lens $1.50 (2.5x from Daiso)
* Safety face shield $7
So all together we are at about $48. The safety face shield is optional, you can strap the whole thing on your head and you would save the 7 bucks for it.
Its a bit time consuming to build a fitting box around the small screen and I would recommend to spray paint it black. The side walls are two layers of 5mm depron, leaving top and bottom a gap, to fit the two remain plates securely in. The whole task took me less than an hour.
Important part is the Fresnel lens, it takes stress from the eyes and makes the image bigger. The 2.5x lens in 3.5″ format I am using here is not ideal. Better would be an A5 or A4 sized lens with higher magnification. But for me the Goggles work allright for me.
Some people had draw backs with the choice of the screen. Many of them switch to a blue screen or turn off, when there is even just a little static. Mine seems to tolerate that quite well.
For the moment I am satisfied with this solution, which might get replaced later with some Fatsharks, with integrated RX.